Down the rabbit trails on Boxer Day

I remember when my mom went to the hospital for a couple of months. That was a long time for a little kid. I was thinking I was about 5 but that would have made David only 2 and I am pretty sure he was older than that. In fact maybe he was 5 and I was 8. Of course, there is no way to know that now. I just remember the ache of missing her. Here it is Boxing Day, the day after Christmas, December 26, 2024.It's the day you give things to service people like the milkman and the mailman. I didn't see the mail carrier today, and the landlord's been sight unseen for over a week. I do have a package of Hershey's "hugs" for him if he ever shows himself, but if he doesn't I will eat them myself. So, back to the topic at hand. There's not much to tell really, but I did get a chance to read a little more of "Bird by Bird" today and Lamott talks about present circumstances telling everybody who you are... I thought of it as the consequences of your past choices or what your life was like. The person said to her, "The evidence is in and you are the verdict." That might make everybody have different responses based on their own experiences. The first thing I thought about was how my living alone came about because of my choices as a young woman. I made the crucial ones before I knew God. I may have made dif Now is the only time we really have, anyway. The topic in the book relates to writing fiction, developing your characters and all that. Obviously, as a child writer, I didn't think about all that. I just set pencil to paper and created a story. Now, everything has to be so complicated. ferent ones if I had known him in my younger years. But now is the important moment. I have not really watched a complete Christmas movie yet this year. On Christmas Eve, I think it was, I tried listening to "Miracle on 34th Street" while doing something else, I don't remember what. Anyway, it didn't work. I had to rewind it. I watched some other movies, namely "National Velvet," "Misty," and "The Adventures of Ociee Nash." my normal list of Christmas movies to watch consists of "Miracle on 34th Street," "A Christmas Carol," "It's a Wonderful Life," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," and "Prancer." I decided if I didn't watch any other on that list, I at least had to watch "A Christmas Carol." I took my laptop into my room and found "A Christmas Carol" (with Alistair Sim) on TubiTV. Well, I fell asleep a bunch of times but I got to see a good bit of it, especially at the beginning and the end. The ending is so wonderful, I never want to miss that. So that's two on my list of which I got a completely incomplete viewing this year. Oh, well, tonight I'm going to try to watch "The Shop Around the Corner." That's just what my soul was whispering to me this morning. I think that's what they based "You've Got Mail" on. I'm not sure, but I think I read that somewhere. Yes, it's true. You can look it up. I am looking forward to watching that. Turns out it's not free, so I guess I won't be watching it. I know what's probably missing tonight in order for me to write. It's the warm piano jazz background music. Ah, that's better. And a cup of coffee brewing. Yes, this is the right ambience. So, I'm supposed to be reading Zechariah this week. I got behind, as usual. I don't know what a lot of it means, and I'm referring to my Bible notes a lot, but one thing I read is that verse about whoever touches Israel touches the apple of God's eye. It's in Zechariah 2:8-9. It's a very powerful passage of Scripture. "For thus says the Lord of hosts: He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye. For surely I will shake My hand against them, and they shall become spoil for their servants. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me." I am not sure exactly what is going on here; that is, the Angel of the Lord, speaking to Zechariah, is talking about Jesus being sent to Israel to protect her and to punish her enemies. Earlier, the Lord said, "For I will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst" (Zechariah 2:5). After Zechariah 2:9, it gets pretty amazing. "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will dwell in your midst," says the Lord. Many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you. And the Lord will take possession of Judah as His inheritance in the Holy Land, and will again choose Jerusalem. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for He is aroused from His holy habitation!"(Zechariah 2:10-13). I'm not going to tell you how to understand that, but I am leaning toward it having something to do with Jesus because the Angel of the Lord speaks of the Lord in two persons ("The Lord has sent Me" (Zechariah 2:9). Don't let anybody lead you astray here. I will ask my pastor about these passages, and you can ask yours as well, but for now, that's what I think is going on. There is a whole lot of evidence in the Bible that God's hand of protection is on Israel,and all the nations of the world really should not be messing with Israel. I am not very well versed on the prophetic books of the Bible, but there are things that stand out to me, and I trust God will teach me what I need to know as I go through the Bible and as I go through my life. Anyway, God is very patient with people and with nations, that is for sure. He has been dealing with Israel and the whole world for a long time and people continue to rebel and choose to live their life without God, and it is such a shame people don't want to know the truth and be set free. That's what Jesus came to be and to do. I am very behind in my reading, so I am going to go ahead and close this for now. I like starting the Bible in Genesis at the beginning of a new year. I typically get bogged down somewhere in Numbers, but I try to keep going. This next year is going to be a humdinger, I really believe that, and we all need to be sharpening up our spiritual swords.